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Saturday, March 31, 2018

advocating for art -- gimme gimme

“Remember, governments don’t cut arts funding to save money. They do it when they are afraid of what artists say and do."

Saw this interesting quote on facebook, and didn’t know whether to register amusement or grief. It was said with all the brusque defiance of a teenager demanding the family car, and demonstrated a similar self-serving crybaby logic. Where is this phalanx of artists ready to bite the hand that feeds them, and where is this hand that passes out goodies to biters? I’d like to know. That isn’t the way life works, not since I’ve been here. Artists who live on government subsidy are pets, patted on the head and given a patch to play in.

Saying that out loud may be offensive to some, but show me different. I’ve been to the graduate/faculty show over at the U, and I didn’t see too much for the government to fear. Actually, I also didn’t see much to like, by anyone. What sort of art do you have in your houses, people? Broken teacups on the floor and six foot cream-color sculptures of snot, I doubt it. I suspect without massive ‘funding‘ you’d have to look for other work, or maybe apply yourself to reaching out to fellow citizens, identifying with the community you live in, and producing an art that speaks to some common aspiration, whether the government approves or not. Sounds harsh, so sorry.

I understand they seem alien, the people who actually contribute from their own lively-hoods to provide all these swell studios, the professional grade gallery spaces, and send their kids off to school hoping to learn about art. The rich people in tuxes have shifted your sizable burden down onto them, and their accountants and lawyers also ride. It’s a little unseemly for you to express your contempt for the sensibilities of common folk, or study on ways to offend them, maybe to gain a moment’s notoriety or just to express your cultural superiority. All in all, sorta looks like pooping in the hand that just handed you a twenty, sad.

The government would be just as happy if art and artists said nothing at all, since those on top want to run everything. Art represents a level of communication, of human interaction, they can’t control and it makes them uneasy. Rather than censor and harass the way the fascists do, democratic governments would rather subsidize obscurity, blind the court jester and pull out his tongue. It’s done with peer group reviewers who recognize their own, the freeloader’s wink and nod, and at the same time they create a huge unassailable money sink to launder tons of stinky cash and avoid paying legitimate taxes. Rejoicing all around except for the culture losing its eyes and a voice, the people who pay and yet are deprived of this means of realization and growth, along with the artists who attempt to live from their art in their own communities.

If you don’t like government censorship, don’t take their money. Give up your swell studio and grant allowances, paycheck with parking space, and ease on out into the deep end of the pool where art is a two way enterprise, meeting a public halfway and providing a value worth the money, an improvement for their lives. I can see why you whine when purse strings get tight, but don’t bitch about a government you’re part of, agents of anti-art, you share in the guilt. No sympathy.

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